Dry rot repair closes Fort Bragg High school for a day

Fort Bragg High School was closed Friday, Sept. 13, after an engineer's inspection found dry rot in a structural beam in one of the school's buildings. An email to the district from David Carpenter, engineer of record, recommended that the building be vacated for safety reasons until repairs could be made.

At last Thursday's meeting of the school district board of trustees, it was disclosed that the school would be closed last Friday while the district addressed the issue.

Neil Bohn, president of Counterpoint Construction Services, told trustees that the dry rot is at one ond of a 2-foot section of a long beam.

"It's not unsafe by any stretch," he said, adding that repairs would not be difficult to make. District Superintendent Don Armstrong agreed and said that even though the likelihood of an earthquake or structural failure is small, he will not risk the safety of teachers and students by occupying the building.

High School Principal Rebecca Walker and Asst. Principal Bruce Triplett said they'd formulated a plan to deal with evacuating the building if necessary. However, it was not necessary.

Following a meeting of district officials, staff and architects Friday morning, workers stabilized the beam with shoring.

"They fixed it over the weekend," Armstrong said Monday.

He said until it's permanently fixed, which is part of the modernization in progress, only a single staff office in a corner of the 100 wing, is to remain unoccupied. He said students were called together Monday morning and told what had taken place.

Fort Bragg High School has been under construction since spring 2013. Construction is expected to be completed by June 2014, by the end of the school year, including new classrooms at the north end of the campus.